Yesterday we reported that the European Union was set to ban cash transactions over 500 Euros, bringing the entire continent one step closer to a monopolized, and now totally monitored currency.

As the EU based news source that I quoted yesterday mentioned:

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“Any transaction in excess of 500 euros will soon only be allowed via credit or debit card or by check, according to a plan by the Finance Ministry aimed at combating tax evasion. The ceiling for cash transactions is to be lowered from 1,500 euros today to 500 euros and could be reduced further over in the course of 2013. Ministry sources say that in the first quarter of the new year all companies and certain self-employed individuals will have to obtain the POS (point-of-sale) terminals that provide for card transactions.”

As I explained, this is a very alarming situation, but it is likely that this will backfire, pushing Europeans to find other ways of trading, ways that are off the grid and free from surveillance, inflation and taxation.

These decentralized community based currencies have already been thriving in many areas of Europe, and the following months and years will probably see a sharp incline in underground currencies if these sorts of measures continue.

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This underground currency development in Europe and other parts of the world is something that I have been watching over the past several years.

In areas that have been most effected so far in the worldwide economic crisis there has been an increasing use of online open source currencies. These currencies help communities barter with one another easily and effectively without using the Euro which is becoming increasingly useless by the day. Last year there was a lot of news about bitcoin being more stable than the Euro, with more and more investors transferring their funds into these types of currencies.